Hello everyone, I hope you are all feeling great today and life is treating you well.
I’m here to let you know about our new hobby advertising initiative here
at Grinning Skull Studios, that is for any advertiser in the RPG/Wargaming/gaming field.

We are happy to offer a full page colour advertisment in our PDF releases for $10
per month (Our usual RRP: $30) limited to the first 10 advertisers who apply. We release at least 6 new titles monthly, and for jut $10 per month, your full page ad will be included in every title for the month.

Considered advert genres include:

All RPG media & companies,

All Wargaming media, companies, miniatures & equipment/supplies,

Video games,

All LARP media & promotion,

Horror media, film & fiction,

Fantasy media, film & fiction,

Sci-fi media, film & fiction,

Genre Websites,

Comics media,

Crafts & handmade items,

Anything that fits into our niche (please contact me for details)

All our customers are Wargamers & Rpgers, so you can garauntee that your ads will get FULL VISIBILITY from our targetted niche market. $10 wont get you much more than a small meal and a coffee these days, so get in touch with me if you’d like to
discuss more about this deal! (contact me via the page in the menu!)

Well, how could I not feature this KS, given that the tagline for these minis is “Delvers Lost in the Dungeons of Doom!” it’s pretty much right up my alley! Star Hat miniatures are a company I haven’t come across before, but they have my attention now!

As you will gather, these are a set of generic adventurer types typical for dungeon exploration as per the usual RPG/wargaming fantasy fare. There is an old skool feeling to these, very similar to some ancient citadel sculpts and a few other older UK miniature firms work, which is a good thing, although some purists might disagree.

I like them, that’s for sure, and there are more than enough options for classes that’d fit many an RPG group needing some miniatures to fit their party for some dungeon bashing tomfoolery!

I feel that the only criticism I can aim at Star Hat Miniatures, is that the “Dungeons of Doom” moniker is used, and i should be at least getting a free set of them to pay for the favorable review and the royalty bonus for using that in the set title! But joking aside, they look fine to me and (hint, hint!) If you ever want me to review a set in person on here, please do!!!

No doubt this KS will be fully funded, as it’s already almost there, but do your bit and check them out if old skool D&D type figures is your thing. Check out the link to visit the project KS page for more info:

It seems like an age has passed since I did a Crowdfunding Spotlight here, so I thought I’d draw attention to this very interesting documentary, all about the roots and whole aspect of the miniature wargaming hobby.

Containing interviews from industry luminaries, as well as the up and coming too, all in all it sounds like a great watch, and something different too (Well, as far as I know, there haven’t been any such documentaries before, let alone a movie!!) It’s something that we as a community should be supporting and doing our bit, so even if you won’t be donating to the cause, I’d emplore that you share the links to the KS page, to make sure that the film gets 100% funded in time (I’m pretty sure it will, since at the moment of writing it’s hit just over £7,000 of the target £10K needed!)

Compared to the Encounter elements set from the previous crowdfunding spotlight, this terrain block system looks like something you’d find in a primary school (very similar to the counting block type learning toy you do still find, trust me, I have two under 7’s!) Again some of you will be calling me the Simon Cowell of the gaming crowdfunder reviewers and coming across negatively, but fate will conspire to put a spanner in the works, especially when you consider the untimely nature of the starting of both similar gaming block systems at the same time period. All I can think is that it’s got to hurt either one or both. Personally I think the Encounter elements set is the clear winner here in look and style.

Although this set wins out on colour choices to represent different terrain, it does so with absence of any real visual appeal, this is even more basic than the last, but at least the previous had more to it. Also I think what scores against it for me, is the blue ones look very similar to the cold packs you get inside cooler bags and boxes!

I told you! Look, its not my intention to pull down an active project in case it effects its cause, but I’m just being honest, anyway thats how this whole thing works, simply by putting this up for the world to see and hopefully fund, indeed we are possibly setting one self up for a fall (Trust me, I tried and made an epic fail, so I know it aint easy)

Check out the vid and visit the link for the whole pitch for your cash, and as ever, let me know what you think in the comments below.

So again with more Crowdfunders for us freaks and geeks, this time in the form of two similar projects on kickstarter. First of being the Encounter Elements encounter bricks construction system.

These are geared towards the GM/DM who just hasn’t got time to create some terrain for the various enounters one might need to show during game on the tabletop (which is a good thing if you actually need that on the fly) Now, I’m not that invested in the RPG aspect of stuff anymore, although it played a significant role in my past, you know the Grinning skull is primarily a wargaming site (well, minis anyway) but seeing as though this is for miniatures, I wanted to put them here for that purpose.

As you can probably see, these are used for the quick creation of terrain and in that respect, you can use the system for wargaming if your terrain expectations aren’t clouded by things looking a little basic.

So what we have here is basically a type of lego/megablocks set-up specifically for us gamers, which is ok I suppose, if you like the asthetic, but lets not dress this up. RPG/Wargamer lego it is.

I mean look at it. Dress it up as much as you want with trinkets and miniatures, it looks like flat topped lego. Look, I may sound rather negative about it, I just want to say that it doesn’t really solve any problems that using lego wouldn’t sort (Ok, so lego isn’t flat on the top, and the lego studs probably arent the best thing to balance your prized minis on, but apart from that no real difference) What I’m saying is, it’s not the most groundbreaking gaming product that’s going to change the way that you play your games.

For serious RPGers/wargamers, No not really. For loose and easy beginner play, yes that would be much better, I’d say better suited for the young uns. Don’t get me wrong, theres nothing wrong with the design and manufacture, and I could definitely put them to use in some limited form, I’d just want to add more dimension to them, convert and paint etc, but I could probably come up with something better for my needs myself, from scratch, but then again I don’t think I’m the demographic for this product.

For what it’s worth, if I were after something like this, I think lego type blocks would be a better and easier off the shelf buy. It’s all very swish and well produced, but I’m afraid its all fur coat and no knickers. Sorry Encounter Elements.

Check out the vid & page link to the project and make your own mind up about it.

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Miniature Wargaming

So, it’s been a while since the Grinning Skull Miniature line has had any new additions, but fear not, in true honour of Pennywise the Dancing Clown and all things Halloween, we have some lovely little murder dwarves to use in your miniature based games! These diminutive and horrible harlequins are suitable for either 15mm, 20mm […]

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Busy, Busy, Busy… Well, as you can imagine, my lack of presence here posting means I’ve been busy and somewhat distracted with all sorts of things of late. Things have been happening that have meant I haven’t had the chance to update the site as much as I’d have liked to. I’d have liked to […]

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So, with Osprey’s Rogue Stars ( Rogue Stars: Skirmish Wargaming in a Science Fiction Underworld (Osprey Wargames) ) winging its way to me through the post (yes, I succumbed to it in the end, the temptation was far too great!) I really look forward to getting it so I can have a really good read to […]

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So, been browsing about, and I’ve noticed Rogue Stars: Skirmish Wargaming in a Science Fiction Underworld (Osprey Wargames), which has caught my eye with a prospect of getting it. I absolutely know jack s**t about it, only that it seems like an attempt at a mini skirmish game attempt from Osprey to get some of […]

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We’re on the home straight now, with the final part of this month’s releases so far (There are more to come, trust me) so, here’s this part for those of you into Miniature gaming… Quick Quest Poster maps. The Quick Quest poster map range is new, and each includes a massive sectional print out giant […]

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Join the G+ Zombie Wargaming Community

Zombies, zombies, zombies...

Well, as the saying goes, better late than never, indeed we are a few days late in posting the mammoth load of Grinning Skull studios publications that were released last month. I actually think that it’s a new record here, which also leaves us only 31 releases left before we hit 200 Grinning Skull publications in […]

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Yet again, I’m back with another new PDF, this time with a new addition to the modern horror themed apocalypse range of model detailing; Apocalypse 28mm: Warnings and notices of the dead. This is a collection of modern horror zombie themed signage to add to your models and projects. This PDF can be used with […]

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Hello there everyone, just a quick post (or shameless plug!) to tell you that the 15mm Newspapers and Magazines PDFs previously available from the download section here, have now been cleaned up and spliced together and are available for download directly from Wargames Vault. Now entitled Apocolypse 15mm: Newspapers & Magazine Debris, it contains all […]

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I have some weird ideas for wargames, and while most can be somewhat surreal at times, there are some that really stick in my head. A lot of these would be ideal games for conventions as they aren’t really ideas you’d use in a campaign over the course of a few sessions. These would prove […]

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There’s so much cool stuff for 28mm wargaming these days, it almost makes me want to start the switch back over. The choice and availability for the scale seems to far outstrip the rest that for most, it’s classed as god’s own scale! Regulars to the site will recognise this latest KS from the […]